Payroll problem in New Roads causes overdrafts for employees

NEW ROADS- City employees in New Roads made a shocking discovery last week when their hard earned money never made it into their bank accounts.

A payroll problem with the direct deposits caused the issue that left some city workers without money to pay their bills.

"My account was over drafted $245," one city worker said who didn't want to be identified out of fear of retaliation.

City Finance Director Dee Malden told WBRZ the city wound up paying employees with paper checks out of the Harvest Fund Account and the Market at the Mill Accounts. Today, it's still unclear what caused the payroll problem. Some employees are still waiting to get their checks. It affected employees on the City's regular payroll. Police Officers, Public Works Employees and City Hall workers were all affected.

"I probably just did something when I uploaded it (the direct deposits)," Malden said.

The Bank the City of New Roads uses is less than one block away from City Hall. People at Regions bank told WBRZ, they couldn't talk about the issue since the City of New Roads is a client. However, sources close to the problem told WBRZ the city forgot to order checks which caused this mess.

This isn't the first time the City of New Roads has had problems with their finances. Currently, an investigation is underway by the State Inspector General and the State Legilative Auditor into questionable purchases that were made on the City's credit cards for personal use.

Tonight, city workers want more oversight to prevent this type of inconvenience from happening again.

"Everything needs to be supervised, not by one persons eyes but multiple peoples eyes," a city worker said.

As for Malden, she's new at her job and says she's learned something from this.

"I just know to double check it again which I kind of wonder why I didn't think to do it to begin with," Malden said.

The money that was used to pay the employees out of the Harvest Fund and Market at the Mill was reimbursed by the payroll account. The city worker who talked to WBRZ told us the city agreed to pay his overdraft fees due to their error.